More Star Wars films announced

[tighr]

Kinda makes you wonder why 'Old Ben' didn't just bounce off a wall, flip over Vader's head, take the decrepit brat out, pick off a few Troopers, force slam the blast door and warm up the Falcon.

I argued this point way back at the beginning of this thread, because I agree that the fight was a little toooo anticlimactic.

I once saw a youtube video though which was a remix of the fight. The author took the scenes AS IS from the film, sped them up a little bit, duplicated a few of them so as to add more frames, but kept all the dialogue. It looked fantastic, and it was probably some nerd in his parent's basement. It showed the two old men fighting, but with flashes of brilliance that experienced Jedi should have had. I'll try and see if I can find it again.

 

[davejames]

Merely amping up the Obi-Wan vs. Vader fight to the point of two jumping beans bouncing off the walls is the sort of thing JJ probably would do if he had the chance to meddle, and it would be a perversion of the redeeming value of the OT, but that's how a lot of the audience perceive Star Wars these days, as nothing but thrill and no substance.

Actually being the old-school SW fan that he is, I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to dial back the lightsaber battles a bit for his movies, and return the Jedi to being more of the magical and civilized knights of the OT.

The prequel battles might have been kinetic and exciting to watch, but there wasn't anything terribly magical about them anymore, and I suspect he'd want to get back to that.

 

[Nick Ryder]

Oh I completely agree - "keepers of the peace" but yeah, we kick all kinds of ass with our super duper lightsabers and do all kinds of gravity defying feats. But hey we're keepers of the peace!

Really what I would love to see in ANH would be, even if it was the frenetic fighting style of the Prequels but at least a few little tweaks, just to make it look like it really was a fight to the death and not just, like I said before... two old guys fighting with broomhandles over who gets shotgun in the retirement home van.

 

[Set Harth]

Merely amping up the Obi-Wan vs. Vader fight to the point of two jumping beans bouncing off the walls is the sort of thing JJ probably would do if he had the chance to meddle, and it would be a perversion of the redeeming value of the OT, but that's how a lot of the audience perceive Star Wars these days, as nothing but thrill and no substance.

Actually being the old-school SW fan that he is, I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to dial back the lightsaber battles a bit for his movies, and return the Jedi to being more of the magical and civilized knights of the OT.

I should point out that the adjective "civilized" was used by Obi-Wan in ANH to describe the era of the lightsaber.

And also that, historically speaking, "civilized knights" tended to do a lot of fighting with swords.

 

[Nick Ryder]

Yeah a lot of fighting with swords... and starships and fighters and armies of clone troopers with BFG. Yep far more civilized.

 

[tighr]

I think he meant real knights. Like, 12th Century.

In any event, "civilized" knights believed in rules like chivalry and honor.

The Sith, not so much.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

armies of clone troopers

"An elegant weapon for a more civilized age" obviously wasn't referring to the PT era, but before.

LUKE: What is it?

BEN: Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age. For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire.

Ben was referring to the glory days of the old Republic.

That Ben had been really talking about an earlier time, even before the PT, is one of the reasons why I found Obi-Wan's line "so uncivilized" in ROTS to be so embarrassing and cringeworthy. Another reason, in fact related, was because it was yet another in the slew of references to the OT that were pure pastiche, devoid of depth.

Of course Obi-Wan *could* have had that attitude about blasters, but the fact that the line just had to beat the audience over the head with its reference to the OT was just ugh.

By the way, the Jedi were the guardians of peace and justice for over a thousand generations, not just years.

 

[tighr]

By the way, the Jedi were the guardians of peace and justice for over a thousand generations, not just years.

Well, yeah. Yoda was like 900 years old, and he was hardly the first Jedi. And that's information that can be obtained from just the films without the benefit of the EU!

 

[cooleddie74]

I'm not completely up to speed on the distant past of the EU so somebody feel free to correct any mistake in the following statement, but Yoda became a Jedi at the start of what was considered a lengthy period of relative peace and prosperity in the Galactic Republic, arriving on Coruscant to begin his training not that long after the last known Sith went into hiding and were believed to have gone extinct. Memories of the most recent battles between the Jedi and the Sith were still fresh in the minds of some of the older members of the Order who were alive at that time.

For roughly eight centuries the Jedi's combat and weapon skills were used to counter and combat criminals and relatively low-intensity conflicts and skirmishes that would occasionally arise on Republic planets, and the Battle of Naboo of 32 BBY followed by the Clone Wars ten to thirteen years later marked the first major armed conflict of any kind to happen in the Republic in many centuries. Obi-Wan's "more civilized age" comment in ANH was meant to refer to most of Jedi history though certainly not all of it. It was a general statement.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ Some retconning and especially fleshing out is inevitable and perfectly fine. It's more the bulldozing of the OT by stupidity that bothers me.

 

[cooleddie74]

I didn't like the "so uncivilized" comment in ROTS either. It was painfully apparent why it was tossed in there, and about as subtle as a brick across the face.

George can often be his own worst enemy.

 

[Skywalker]

I liked the line.

 

[EnsignRicky]

I think it's cool how they use the same lines over again.

It adds to the overall sense of continuity in the films and really makes The Clone Wars pop.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Well, I don't want to come across as Captain Funsuck, chasing kids off his lawn and taking it all out on clouds.

My main point here was that, when OT Obi-Wan said that, he was in no way alluding specifically to the time of the PT. My dissatisfaction with the PT is really tangential to that.

PT Obi-Wan can be making the same allusion as OT Ben, and disapprove of things having gone downhill, with all these blasters and clones milling about. We're supposed to glean that Obi-Wan pretty much always felt that way, I think.

 

[Skywalker]

I agree that that was probably the intent of the line.

I don't think it'd make a lot of sense if you're watching the films for the first time and in chronological order, but it works if you've seen the OT first, or if you're doing the IV-V-I-II-III-VI order (which is my favorite one).

 

[cooleddie74]

Just curious: in what order do you guys tend to view the films in the Saga? Do you prefer to watch them chronologically by Episode number, the OT first or do you prefer them from favorite to least favorite even if that means they're no longer in any sort of order?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

the IV-V-I-II-III-VI order (which is my favorite one).

That's neat, I never considered that. It kinda splits the difference between release order versus chronological, huh. Plus, it ends with full closure, and it has the added benefit of subordinating the PT to the OT. Nice.

I always did release order, but I think I'll try that next time.

 

[EnsignRicky]

I find that: I, IV, II, V, III, VI has a nice flow.

It gives the whole saga a father and son duality very similar to The Godfather Part II.

 

[cooleddie74]

I won't lie....most of the time (at least since all six Episodes first became available on disc) I watch them in chronological procession starting with I and wrapping up with VI, but there are occasions when I'm on a very strong OT kick and watch the movies in original production order. IV and V have always been my absolute favorites.

 

[RoJoHen]

I mostly just skip ahead to the end of the PT where Hayden Christensen gets his limbs hacked off and his torso set on fire.